Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is flourishing: Survey

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The latest islandwide poll conducted by research firm Kantar TNS, for business magazine LMD, reveals that nearly 90% of respondents believe that Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is booming. They cite the higher inflow of tourists to the country and their ability to visit any part of the island in the post-war era as key reasons for this.

A notable majority (75%) of survey participants also believe that our service standards are extremely high, while 10% say otherwise and 15% sit on the fence, so to speak.

However, sentiments more mixed when it comes to the question of whether hotels in the outstations are world-class – 44% of respondents believe this to be the case, while 37% disagree and nearly a fifth are ‘unsure’.

More than six-in-10 respondents (66%) believe that Sri Lanka offers great value to travellers. However, those in the naysayers’ camp (14%) note that ‘foreigners are being exploited and robbed,’ and that ‘there are insufficient facilities for tourists to obtain good service.’

Citizens point to upgrading hotels and resorts, improving service standards, offering better value for money, spreading destination awareness, introducing new entertainment options, and developing roads and highways as measures that could be taken to improve our tourism product.

LMD’s publisher, Media Services, says the May edition of the pioneering business magazine has been released to leading supermarkets and bookstores in Colombo and the outstations.

Its Cover Story features an exclusive interview with the CEO of HSBC (Sri Lanka and Maldives) Mark Prothero, who shares in-depth insights into the banking and finance spheres amid shifting global undercurrents (for the full story, log onto www.LMD.lk).

‘Koley iragena angey halaganta epa. Londery hathakinn suddda karanta behe’ is the advice in pithy Sinhala idiom, the President offered to his critics and opponents in a recent homily delivered at Nikaweratiya.